Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

170 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:165
primarily at the Labor Party, while Merah chose his victims among soldiers
and the Jewish community.
After the Breivik murders, Norwegian Labor Party Prime Minister
Jens Stoltenberg stated that Norway would respond with even more democracy
and openness. 20 This was propaganda, as the opposite took place. Norway
is a country where opponents of the Labor establishment had great
difficulty expressing themselves before the murders. Afterward, it became
almost impossible for them.
American author Bruce Bawer describes this in his book, The New
Quislings (subtitle, How the International Left Used the Oslo Massacre to
Silence Debate about Islam). Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian prime minister
under the German occupation, became the template for a person who
betrays his country and collaborates with foreign totalitarians; his name has
even become a generic word in dictionaries. Bawer suggests that there are
leftists, to be called “New Quislings,” who betray democracy by helping
totalitarian Islam. He also describes how he himself was demonized in Norway
after the murders. 21
BREIVIK AND MERAH’S WORLD VIEWS
Breivik was a loner. Intelligence services did not claim that they had
information about other such potential murderers. A logical question was
thus asked: who incited Breivik to commit atrocities? There are no organized
groups calling for the mass murder of socialists. As Breivik had mentioned
many names in a lengthy manifesto he had published, a few of those
who wrote negatively about Islam were selected to be falsely accused by
the media.
Among them were Bat Ye’or, author of the book Eurabia; the Norwegian
international blogger Fjordman, whose real name, Peder Jensen, was
revealed; the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, Geert Wilders; and Bawer.
None of these people had ever promoted violence; Breivik did not move in
their circles either. The “New Quislings,” however, needed scapegoats that
could be made responsible for Breivik’s vicious crimes.
Whoever wonders where Merah’s worldview originated doesn’t have
to search far to find out. He publicly claimed before his death that he supported
Al Qaeda, one of the most violent Muslim movements.
20. www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/jens-stoltenberg-norway-prime-mini
ster-oslo-tragedy-democracy-_n_910636.html.
21. Bruce Bawer, The New Quislings: How the International Left Used the Oslo
Massacre to Silence Debate about Islam (Broadside Books, 2011).